Peru president urges help for Guerrero to fight WCup ban

LIMA, Peru (AP) Peru President Martin Vizcarra wants state authorities to help Paolo Guerrero try to overturn a doping ban which forces the national team captain to miss the country’s first World Cup in 36 years.

Vizcarra asked the government and Peru’s ambassador to Switzerland on Wednesday to be ready to help Guerrero challenge his ban at the Swiss supreme court.

Guerrero can ask federal judges to study a ruling announced on Monday by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport which banned him until January for a positive test for cocaine metabolites.

The sports court extended FIFA’s six-month ban which expired this month to 14 months, ruling the 34-year-old forward out of the tournament in Russia.

The CAS said its panel accepted that Guerrero did not intend to drink contaminated tea, and that it was not performance enhancing at a World Cup qualifying game last October. The judges’ full verdict explaining the decision has yet to be published.

The Swiss Federal Tribunal can intervene if legal process was abused. It could give an interim order before Peru’s World Cup program starts on June 16.